Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Deputy Leader to ask the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to bring forward an affordable rental scheme early in autumn. Ensuring that the housing crisis is tackled is a key objective of the Government. The issue of supply is fundamental to achieving that aim.Critically, the State must address the issue of supply. The commitment of Fianna Fáil, the Green Party and Fine Gael is to use public land to deliver public housing. Key to that objective is an affordable rental scheme. A prime example of the barriers to delivering affordable rental is a site in my own constituency, O'Devaney Gardens. For those who do not know it, it is a 14-acre site less than 5 km from O'Connell Street. It is zoned and serviced for housing. It has not only public transportation but electricity, water and sewerage. It has lain derelict for ten years more or less. As a city councillor, I and my colleagues fought to have public housing delivered on public lands. Unfortunately, Fine Gael would not provide full funding for the development of that site and Sinn Féin wanted to give away 50% of it to a private developer. Fianna Fáil councillors with colleagues from the Green Party, Labour Party and Social Democrats did a deal last year that will deliver 80% social and affordable housing on that land. Some 30% of it has the potential to be affordable rental housing. We need the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government to bring forward an affordable rental scheme that will allow Dublin City Council to move on with Tuath and Clúid, the two approved housing bodies, AHBs, that have been selected, and make it a reality. There is potential for 824 homes on this site. The deal we did will not only deliver homes but a community centre, local employment and apprenticeship opportunities. All of that development is public and will provide good quality, sustainable public homes. I ask the Deputy Leader to ask the Minister to bring forward the affordable rental scheme.